As President Trump runs roughshod over norms and laws, extrajudicially murdering 11 alleged drug runners without evidence, deporting legal residents, and dispatching troops to peaceful American cities, all eyes turn to the Democrats who might oppose him. But they seem content to sit by idly and watch the mayhem.
Lazy Dems
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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“107 Days” is another hilariously unintentional confession that the left don’t belong anywhere near the leadership of this country. (I’m talking about the mainstream left specifically, but it’s pretty obvious that the Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs left ideology supported here doesn’t either).
We have the democratic party’s owner/operators standing around and doing nothing. There’s nothing in the wings either. Mamdani? By all the prior cycles of political activity in the U.S., I don’t see how he can — or how he can be permitted to — win. The people in charge will never stand for it. He won the primary. But there’ll be something. If, by a miracle, Mamdani wins? His policies can never be permitted to be put into action. Not by the power elite. The NYC machine will sabotage everything he tries. Look for a lot of nothing, so that the 2028 elections can again run a milquetoast centrist who’ll lose, somehow, to whatever claws its way out of the Trump-less Republican primary.
I am really of the hope we get President Mamdani, or President AOC, or whatever .. there will be subtantial damage but (and?) the Democrats will never be allowed to win another election, ever. I say, let the crazies run everything for 4 years – it will be the end of them
@abducens bemoans that the people on the left aren’t doing anything. @alex_the_tired bemoans that the people on the left who try to do something will always be stopped. So, who is right: the left isn’t trying or every time the left does something it is nonetheless thwarted?
If you have suggestions on what the left should do that would not be thwarted … please share!
Hey! I resent that and am fully supportive of what the left is doing, specifically, their shocking if unintentional display of willingness to tell the American people just how incompetent and corrupt they are really are.
“See,” says Harris, “One thing you have to really understand about my loss is that the Democratic party at large is extremely stupid.” Oh, okay, thanks .. so .. good luck in 2028?
The answer to your question, Lee, is that the Democratic party has to actually have ideas people want, which at current time, they don’t. To wit, It’s not “artificially construct leftist podcasts” or “we need to hold more protests” or “wear vagina hats” or “look at this funny JD Vance photoshop.” They’re killing themselves thinking that winning on social media equates to winning. They’re losing on ideas. I can imagine that might be hard to accept!
abducens> The answer to your question, Lee, is that the Democratic party has to actually have ideas people want
Yes, that’s clear. I’m thinking Medicare for all, Social Security for all, ranked choice voting, and a stop to supporting militarism around the world. What would you add or subtract? (And bonus points if you can explain how to avoid having these thwarted.)
Look, people, the US has not had an electorally viable “left,” i.e., a competitive Socialist Party, since the days of the Palmer raids and the imprisonment of Eugene Debs over a hundred years ago. The real, socialist left started to make a comeback during the Roosevelt years, but was smashed even more decisively by the McCarthy era, the corporatization of the media landscape, and changes to our electoral process made by the D’s and R’s to cement their electoral monopoly. The Democrats are now the center-right party the Republicans used to be before they went full-bore fascist. And yes, their “ideas” make no more sense in our current situation than what the Trumpian GOP is actually doing.
Those on the left with good ideas are finding that they have no power to accomplish them. Is that their fault or the fault of we the voters who elect too many people with worse ideas?
It is neither what remains of the real left’s fault, nor the fault of the voters, but the intention of our corporate oligarchy to ensure that nobody gets offered the option of voting out the oligarchy. However, the oligarchy, despite its pretensions, is inherently unstable, and will collapse from its own contradictions–or rather, it is collapsing from its own contradictions all around us.
Now seems like a good time to remind everyone here: murder is wrong! And if you have to qualify that in any way, you’re a terrible person Q.E.D.
Agreed! Killing people makes things worse not better.
Although the vast majority of progressive have known this for decades (Vietnam War and so on), the right has started to figure this out too. Whenever the victim is a powerful white man or pretty white woman, or whenever the assailant is in this country illegally, the right is sure to point out how tragic the killing is. It is my hope that soon they will notice the other 99% of killings that are happening too.
As to Lee’s question. I’m not saying it’s impossible for the “competent left” (my term) to eventually rise up. But it would take organizational skills of a superb quality linked to a stable funding base (a la the Sanders model of many small donations and NO big donations) to enable the foundational group to make a living while it implements short-, mid-, and long-term goals. The group would need to be organized locally and nationally with a simplified goal structure (at first). One plank, not a platform.
So how do we get there from here? Specifically, what should I be urging my elected representatives and neighbors to do? What should I be doing myself? Although I know that the cause is vital, I haven’t figured out how I can be helpful rather than ineffective, performative, etc.
No sarcasm intended. Study the failures.
Look at Occupy Wall Street. You can’t be leaderless. It’s simply too large a gap for the human animal to bridge constructively at this time in its evolution. We are social animals. You either become the leader yourself, or, if you have the capacity to be self-critical and discover you don’t have the requisite leadership capacities, you seek out the leader.
Look at Black Lives Matter. Grifters took it over and co-opted it. Again, because there wasn’t any real leadership. I suspect that if someone were to write the unpublishable book about where all the money went — in which people’s individual pockets rather than back out into the communities in real, tangible, receipt-able ways — it would be quite an eye-opener to the wine and brie crowd. Remember, they got Al Capone because his books didn’t add up. An EFFECTIVE organization has a skilled accountant who knows when someone puts their hand in the till.
Look at the Greta Thunbergs. Imbecilic scolds who think that getting on your bespoke yacht and using it to sail to press conferences to stamp your foot in anger is going to get it done. Similarly, look to the generic-grade Gretas: those also-imbeciles throwing soup at paintings. A successful movement will identify these people quickly and get them out of the movement as quickly as possible. Either give them the idiot-grunt work or simply put them somewhere away from the public or tell them they aren’t a good fit with the org’s goals.
There must be some problem in your area that could be tackled by five to 10 people. A public garden? A youth center? A food pantry? Get something “out there” that lets people see what your group actually did. That’s how you build membership so you can start going after the bigger projects.
Also look to the successes. The Montgomery Bus Boycott. ACT UP. The grassroots campaign that finally ended smoking in most places. (Of course, now there’s vape everywhere, but that’s the next battle.)
@alex_the_tired Right, there’s no shortage of failures to study … but that’s why I am stymied. The list of successes is more useful to me. Where I need help is in understanding what made those successes succeed? Or more specifically, what can we do now, similar to those previous successes (or not), that has a non-trivial chance of success? It doesn’t have to be easy, but it does have to avoid being pointless.
Yes, I can and do participate in local causes. That does seem to be worthwhile. If you can think of something that I can do that would help on a national or international scale, that’d be great to hear!
I guess I’m gonna have to say it again, more plainly: the system is rigged to prevent ordinary citizens from getting into power or influencing it in any significant way, let alone taking it over. The good news/bad news is that it’s destroying itself as fast as it can.